Practicing tolerance to ambiguity: this is how “Twelve week at Riad” that is the name of the book written by the German journalist Susanne Koebl. The subheading could go like: “Why the West believes more in lucrative orders than human rights”. Instead it is as follows: “Saudi-Arabia between dictatorship and breakup”. Is this really a question of either … or?
Nobody knows whether it is simply a moderate breeze or a coming storm. At the latest since November last year there is a much-debated new face on the scene of the world map: Mohammed Bin Salman (aka: MbS), Saudi Arabia’s young crown prince. And right at the start he calls the world’s attention: For the first time in the history
Unbelievable but true: An American exchange student in Saudi Arabia, explicitly in Riyadh, discovered much to his surprise that “urban life is unexpectedly normal by U.S. standards” over there. In a blog entry that happens to be a namesake of my blogMiddle East Messenger, the American student Cody Knipfer writes about his experience in Saudi Arabia, a desert state widely
In these days there is so much going on that one does not really know how to asses the whole thing: Gaddafi is dead, the Americans withdraw their troops from the Iraq, the Iran is was accused of attempted murder on the saudi-arabian ambassador to the US, in Europe and the States people protest against the power of banks and
Granted, times are confusing. On the one hand Mumbai witnesses its severest bombings since 2008, on the other side our female chancellor delivers tanks to Angola and Saudi-Arabia. At first sight, these facts do not seem to be linked to each other. Then, there is a civil war under way in Libya and is not the NATO involved in it?
Until yesterday night I had the firm conviction that Rumpelstiltskin originated from the brain of the Brothers Grimm. Yesterday evening, however, I was taught a lesson on the German/French TV channel “arte”. De facto, Rumpelstiltskin can also be found in the Arabic World. Where? It is hard to believe, but for instance you can find it at the “Middle East
Shortly and eventually I came across three totally different fictional books having a plot situated in Saudi Arabia. In my opinion it is still a country on which myths, rumours or lurid tales do the rounds and little has been proven. In order to narrow this knowledge of mine (and ours) gap I borrowed three non-fiction books covering this kingdom
My first real contact with the phenomena of “binational” marriages was full of clichés and a big success in the western hemisphere being approved in its stereotypes: “Not without my daughter” was the name of the hieß das pretentious novel which was later on picturized with Sally Field playing the leading part. The Arabic or better Islamic world opened up
Customer magazines are nothing new. As I already reported on “No dream out of 1001 night” copies of popular magazines are on the decline. Customer magazines, however, that intend to introduce third parties to the culture of one’s own or a foreign country are rather the exception. In case they provide additionally classroom material then they become really interesting. Such
We are used to oddities from the Gulf States – not the other way round. An article from the political magazine Spiegel online about wealth in the Gulf States made me google. The so called “Saudi Rich List” of the magazine “Arabian Business” made me curious and some fortune hunters may pay some extra attention right now. Let us take